Problems

amsung targets for ЎҐdifferentiated marketingЎ¦ operating in different market segments and designs different offers for each segment. Samsung produces its consumer products with innovative and cutting-edge design in VCRs, DVD players, TVs, LCD monitors and mobile phones and distributes to different geographies viz. Far East, the North America, the entire South Africa, Western Europe and Indian Subcontinent. The sheer pace of new electronic product offerings is still staggering across the world including new market like Australia and New Zealand and parts of Eastern Europe. This year Samsung launched 100 new products in the U.S., including 53 new TVs. Over the past five years, Samsung has earned 18 industrial design awards; last year alone it won five from Business Week/IDSA, a total matched only by Apple Computer.

Because Samsung has developed a stronger position within several segments including consumer products, their target marketing strategy certainly creates more total sales than an undifferentiated marketing strategy, where a firm ignores the market segment differences and goes after the whole market with a single market offer. However, by creating separate marketing plans for their different lines of products, their effort also increases the cost of business. Developing separate marketing plans for separate segments with different lines of products requires SamsungЎ¦s extra marketing research, forecasting, sales analysis, promotion planning and channel management across the world. And as Samsung is trying to reach different market segments with different advertising, it increases their promotion cost as well. So, Samsung should weigh their increased sales against their increased costs when deciding on this differentiated target marketing strategy.